A few interesting stats, from conference organiser Pancho Campo:
To buy a 750ml bottle from Australia, delivered to Chicago.
Eg Yellow Tail.
Produces: 12 million cases, 144 million bottles~
Production and delivery: glass sourced locally, no wood barrels for ageing, packed into containers, covered with insulator blanket to keep cool, trucked fom Yenda to port in Australia, 33 days journey to LA, then truck and train to East Coast.
Total carbon emissions: 2.2kg per bottle. Magnum 4kg per bottle.
Total emissions from production and distriution: 3.44kg per bottle.
To buy a cult cabernet sauvignon wine from Napa, again to theoretical customer in Chicago.
Produces: 1000 cases, 12,000 bottles.
Production and delivery: Bottled in heavy glass bottles for 'luxury' image, packed in heavy wooden cases, sold through mailing lists, from winery direct to consumer, overnight express delivery (which means FedEx or something similar, by air)
CO2 emissions = 4.5kg per bottle.
The difference, despite the shorter travelling distance, is due to weight and air cargo. So don't always imagine that buying locally (or natinally) is the most carbon-friendly thing to do.
Generally speaking, transportation and packaging creates biggest impact – delivery of bottles and barrels, plus shipping the final product to customers.
The following figures are for grams of CO2 per ton of cargo per km transported.
By ship – 52.1g/ton
By ship in refrigerated container 67.1
By train 200
By truck 252
By air 570
= shipping by sea still most carbon-friendly.
Air cargo emits 11 times more CO2 than container cargo.
